


The Anniversary

by laurel_raatko_lance



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/F, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2020-09-24 15:24:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20360779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurel_raatko_lance/pseuds/laurel_raatko_lance
Summary: AU where Nyssa finds herself in a strange apartment with a beautiful woman and no memory of how she got there





	The Anniversary

Nyssa wakes up in the bed of a stranger. Oddly enough, there is something familiar about the room she’s in, something she can’t quite put her finger on, but it feels like she’s meant to be here.

The apartment seems to hold no indication of who it belongs to, in fact, it looks as if some pictures have been taken down recently, which is strange to say the least. She keeps looking around for a while longer though, hoping something might come back to her.

Then another woman bursts into the room, regarding her with a mischievous grin on her face. She’s beautiful. Lovely green eyes, a charming smile, Nyssa is enamoured already. There’s something vaguely familiar about her too, and Nyssa puts it off to probably having done something uncharacteristically stupid the night before. She deduces that the apartment most likely belongs to the blonde in front of her and that she must have let her sleep in her bed to be polite, it’s just a shame she can’t remember her at all.

“I’m Laurel.” the woman keeps grinning at her, grabs her hand and places a polite kiss on the back of it.

_Laurel.. a beautiful name for a beautiful woman,_ Nyssa thinks.

“I’ve made some breakfast if you’re hungry.” Laurel turns around and starts walking to what is presumably the kitchen, where they find a small table filled with all kinds of things Nyssa loves. She wonders briefly, how the other woman could possibly know this, and figures it must have just been a lucky guess on her part.

Nyssa is soon persuaded and dragged along on what proves to be a very exciting day. 

They walk around the city for most of it, Laurel pointing out her favourite places to be and even taking her to a little park to sit on one of the benches with her for a while. Conversation comes easy to the both of them, and Nyssa finds herself hoping for a little more than just friendly conversation.

To her pleasant surprise, or perhaps to her dismay, she has quite a hard time deciding, Laurel insists on holding hands almost the entire time. The woman’s hand feels incredibly soft in her own, and she somewhat wishes she would never have to let go, it’s starting to feel almost like their hands are made for each other at this point, she enjoys the skin-to-skin contact immensely. Thankfully Laurel doesn’t seem to be planning on letting go any time soon either.

Over the course of their adventure, she finds herself falling in love with the lovely blonde far more easily than she would like to admit, there is just something about her that it makes her heart ache in the best possible way.

In the evening, they find themselves sitting at a table in Laurel’s favourite place to get milkshakes. She noticed a while ago that whenever Laurel thinks she’s not being looked at, an expression of longing and sadness replaces her ever-present smile, she would have to ask her about that later. 

Before she knows it, they are back in Laurel’s apartment, the other woman had an easy time convincing her to stay another night.

* * *

When Nyssa wakes up the next day, she is alone again. She briefly wonders where she is, before she finds a newspaper and a small calendar lying on the side of the bed, the paper folded open on a page describing a car accident, which in theory, shouldn’t be too unsettling, if it didn’t have her photograph next to it. The date printed on top also threw her off, 2021? this could not be right. The calendar next to it confused her even more, it could not possibly be 2024. Someone must be trying to pull a bad joke on her here, surely she would know if she’d been in an accident or even remember any of the years after 2015.

Her head feels dizzy. She gets out of bed to try and find the bathroom, however, the pictures on the walls make her stop in her tracks, she’s present in all of them, she looks happy, and so does the woman with her. They are dancing in some, holding hands and smiling at the camera in others. The wedding photo however, was the most unsettling, not that she wouldn’t love to be married to a beautiful woman, but she was almost positive she was not. Almost.

Someone clears their throat behind her and Nyssa spins around to find the woman from the pictures leaning against the doorframe, a soft, but sad smile on her face.

“My name is Laurel” she offers kindly.

Nyssa slowly opens and closes her mouth in consideration, looking over to the wedding picture one more time and then back to Laurel. “…we are married?”

“Mhm.” Laurel nods “We’ve been married for seven years now. Yesterday was our wedding anniversary.” she walks over to the commode and pulls out a tiny object from the top drawer.

“This is yours.” she stops in front of Nyssa and places a beautiful ring into the brunette’s open palm.

Inspecting the piece of jewellery, Nyssa can’t help but marvel at how much she loves the design of it.

“You were the one who picked out both our rings” Laurel informs her, looking down at the ring on her own finger nostalgically “You have wonderful taste.”

“Is this something you do every day?” Nyssa can’t hold the question back.

Another nod. “For you? I will gladly spend every single day of the rest of my life doing this.”

Looking into sad green eyes, she tries to swallow the lump that’s formed in her throat. She tentatively steps into Laurel’s personal space, bringing her hand up to stroke the woman’s jaw fondly.

“I’m _so sorry_” Nyssa whispers, leaning her forehead against Laurel’s, “If only I could remember you...”

“Don’t be. It isn’t your fault.” Laurel’s expression morphs into a small smile “And hey, who else can say they get to fall in love with their spouse every single day?”

Nyssa’s lips curl upward. She leans in a little further and presses her lips to her wife’s, initiating a deep kiss that feels far more natural than she imagined it would, like her body knew, deep down, that this is not their first kiss.

“I love you _so_ much” Laurel speaks reverently after pulling away.

“I wish I could remember loving you too.” Nyssa whispers, holding Laurel’s chin between two of her fingers. She impulsively presses another, shorter, kiss to Laurel’s lips.

“So... what do you feel like doing today?”


End file.
